


fugen jikkou

by mahwaha



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Dolls, Friendship/Love, Haunted Houses, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2016-03-31
Packaged: 2018-05-30 06:51:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6413359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mahwaha/pseuds/mahwaha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A test of courage. A testament to his passion:  to volleyball, to Kiyoko-san, and to cute girls everywhere who might go through Doll House at the same time as he did - girls who might even cling to his arm without thinking about it when they were scared, who’d blush and start to let go all like, “Oh, Tanaka-san, I’m sorry I...” before he got all embarrassed too but said something smooth like, “No, it’s okay. I’ll hold onto you, Fumiko-san.” Or maybe her name would be Kou. It didn’t matter; he could picture her perfectly looking up at him through her lashes, and the thought fired him up like nothing else.</p>
<p>“<i>Haaaaa!</i> Don’t worry, Kou-san! You can hold onto me if you’re scared!” Arms flung wide and bent at the elbows, Ryuunosuke howled it to the heavens with wide eyes and a wider mouth. Yelping chased on his tail, but not from Ryuu; a group of three girls had scurried past him at the outburst, glancing to each other and giggling behind their hands while he flushed at the realization.</p>
            </blockquote>





	fugen jikkou

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sugartweeze](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugartweeze/gifts).



> I hope I've done even a shred of good by your favorite volleydork, because he's marvelous.

“Call me when you need a pickup, Ryuu! Show ‘em how cool you are!” And like that, after jostling him with her arm hooked around his shoulders, Saeko had left him to fend for himself. 

A test of courage. A testament to his passion: to volleyball, to Kiyoko-san, and to cute girls everywhere who might go through Doll House at the same time as he did - girls who might even cling to his arm without thinking about it when they were scared, who’d blush and start to let go all like, “Oh, Tanaka-san, I’m sorry I...” before he got all embarrassed too but said something smooth like, “No, it’s okay. I’ll hold onto you, Fumiko-san.” Or maybe her name would be Kou. It didn’t matter; he could picture her perfectly looking up at him through her lashes, and the thought fired him up like nothing else.

“ _Haaaaa!_ Don’t worry, Kou-san! You can hold onto me if you’re scared!” Arms flung wide and bent at the elbows, Ryuunosuke howled it to the heavens with wide eyes and a wider mouth. Yelping chased on his tail, but not from Ryuu; a group of three girls had scurried past him at the outburst, glancing to each other and giggling behind their hands while he flushed at the realization.

“Oh, Kou-chan, did you hear that? Did you?”

“Stoooop, Fumi-senpai, you tease too much!”

“Do you know him?” 

Their voices petered off as they left his orbit, though Ryuu stared after them with bright, burning ears and just a touch of shame. At least, at first. Whether the alignment of the planets had been particularly auspicious or his passion had set fire to the rest of the cosmos, Ryuu didn’t have to dwell long; as soon as those girls had moved on, an answering shout spiked as his only warning before a hard slap smacked between his shoulder blades.

“That was so manly!” Ryuu caught another thump before he caught sight of the deliverer, because his eyes had to drop: a short but lively guy with Saeko’s kind of drumming impact and cool, spiky hair. His grin grew when Ryuu locked eyes with him, larger than life. “You must really know what girls want, yelling out like ‘huwah!’ Are you going in?”

“Huh?” Ryuu squinted at Spiky when he stepped back, but the leery expression left as swiftly as it’d come. The guy _had_ called him manly, after all - and Ryuu planted his fists on his hips, puffing out his chest. “Yeah, ‘course I am!”

Spiky leapt with a laugh, catching Ryuu’s shoulders to push himself even higher in the moment. “Me too! It’s my proof as a man. If there’s any girls who need someone to guard their backs - “

“Or hold their hands!” Ryuu fired off, starting to grin on his own.

“Exactly!” Every time Spiky bounced, he pressed down on Ryuu’s shoulders, but damn if his fire wasn’t infectious. He shook Ryuu’s shoulders when he finally planted himself back on the ground, then mimicked Ryuu’s stance with a high-beam smile. “You’re a real man’s man, I can tell. I’m Nishinoya Yuu.” He thrust his thumb into his chest, looking for all the world like he could be taller than Ryuu in the moment. “What’s your name?”

“Tanaka Ryuunosuke.” The air between them vibrated with intensity, a kettle perched to overflow as Nishinoya stuck his hand out and Ryuu slapped their palms together.

“Ryuu, that’s a cool name! You wanna come in with me?” Nodding back towards the Doll House, Nishinoya leaned in and ducked his chin, meeting Ryuu’s gaze with those luminous, cat-like eyes. “Last time I went through, I met the perfect woman. She had this perfect black hair,” he said, wiggling his fingers back behind his head, “and perfect gray eyes - _and_ a perfect slap when I jumped out and scared her! I’ll come back every day for a chance to see Kiyoko-san.”

“Kiyoko-san comes here? She slapped you? For real?”

“Right here.” Nishinoya nodded, touching his left cheek with a grave expression.

It had to be fate. Fate and an opportunity to show his burning determination while he forged a path with Noya-san - and just like that, Ryuu had Nishinoya by the arm to drag them both to the ticket table.

* * *

The story behind the Doll House wasn’t much of a problem...until the waivers of liability came out. And the warning to not look behind them, no matter what they heard, felt, or thought they saw. 

Stepping through the door and past black, heavy curtains, Ryuu stood shoulder to shoulder with Nishinoya in the suffocating dark. Pale forms pulled out of the shadows in increments while his eyes adjusted; hina dolls trussed up in golds and reds, their white faces almost glowing where they crowded shelves upon shelves along the walls. The Doll House was said to be the place where lost dolls gathered who had seen the girls they were gifted to die in tragedy. Dolls who hadn’t been burned or cleansed. With their collective bitterness and trapped, tainted souls, they haunted the halls and tortured any souls who entered their domain. Especially girls. Which Ryuu refused to stand for.

When he glanced to Nishinoya’s shape in the dark, he found Nishinoya looking back. They clutched their paper dolls together and nodded.

“Don’t worry, Ryuu. No matter what, you’ll have me guarding your back.”

“Noya-san!” Ryuu couldn’t help it; Noya was the real man’s man, cooler and more reliable by the second. He just exuded coolness! It stirred up his heart, swept through his stomach, and made his ears hot to stand next to a guy like Noya-san. Clapping Nishinoya’s shoulder with his free hand, Ryuu squeezed hard and sniffled. “There’s no way we’re losing here!”

“Yeah!”

“We were meant to meet and save every damn girl we can!”

“ _Yeah!_ ”

“ _Yeah!_ ” Ryuu shouted, taking a large step forward with Nishinoya by his side. “Bring it on!”

* * *

From the outside, the house hadn’t looked that large, but the rooms opened endlessly and the quiet bled with a climbing tension. Ryuu chewed his lip red as stared down at a table, the light dim but just enough to make out lines of smashed-in doll heads, their porcelain faces scattered in fragments across a dark, pulpy puddle. He wasn’t about to touch it. No fucking way. He heard the rattle of the sliding door behind them in its frame, shoulders jerking and the impulse to whirl around so palatable that restraining it felt like grappling with Saeko.

“Ryuu,” Nishinoya hissed, attached to the back of his shirt with knotted fists. “Go, go!”

A thin, quavering moan crept up behind them and the fine hair at the nape of Ryuu’s neck stood. He reached back with one arm to fist the shoulder of Noya’s shirt instead, half-hauling him forward as the moaning gave way to heavy, pounding steps - and those stomped after them, faster like a ball gaining momentum down a hill.

“ _Ryuu!_ ”

“ _NOYA!_ ” 

Breath on his neck - or was he moving too fast? Ryuu hooked his arm up under Nishinoya’s armpit regardless, dragging them both into the next room with all of the thunder of a storm of horses and shrieking at a pitch that would offend dogs when he ran into a warped, horrifying figure with pits for eyes and some kind of growth - 

“ _RYUU!_ ”

“ _NOYA-SAN!_ ”

They clutched at each other, all hands and jabbing elbows until Ryuu realized that they’d run straight for the bathroom mirror. The mirror. In the bathroom. Breathing hard, Ryuu clutched at Noya while he looked down, catching the flash of that broad grin before hunching to let Noya down. He cussed while Noya laughed, still latched onto his side so each exhale warmed Ryuu through his shirt.

“Goddamnit! Bring it on, ghost!” Movement snagged the edge of Ryuu’s vision, a body spilling out over the lip of the tub, and his raging turned to choked roaring as its hands slapped wet across the tile toward Noya. He ripped his shirt up and off from beneath Noya’s hands, whipping it above his head like a bastardized battle flag and pushing Noya back one-armed. “Go, Noya-san! I’ll hold it off!”

Nishinoya hooked his fingers into Ryuu’s waistband for the lack of shirt to latch onto, then yanked Ryuu back out of the bathroom while he staggered backwards, himself. “If we go down, we’ll do it together,” he shouted, already grappling to cinch his arms around Ryuu’s middle. “I swore I’d have your back, Ryuu - let’s go!”

Ryuu’s shirt flew through the bathroom door after the jittering limbs of the ghost, and his emphatic shout of, “Noya-san,” weighed heavy between them. He ran, Nishinoya trailing behind him like a cape while he held on for dear life.

* * *

It’d been quiet. Too quiet, but Ryuu snatched up the chance to breathe as soon as he’d stopped and Noya planted his feet back on the floor. Even bare-chested and sweaty he radiated heat, stooping with his hands braced against his thighs.

“Can you hold this for me, Ryuu?” When Noya’s hand appeared beneath his nose, Ryuu didn’t give it a second thought; he started to straighten up as he grabbed it and squeezed tight, only belatedly realizing the damp, wrinkled doll Noya had been given was sandwiched between them. 

“Ah, sorry,” Ryuu started, but when his grip slackened Noya’s tightened.

“Ryuu! That was so smooth!” Nishinoya sidled in closer, looking close to emitting his own light before glancing down at their joined hands. Ryuu panicked when Noya’s grip started to loosen, but reliable as ever, Noya didn’t give him long for it. “Hang on,” he said, holding out his hand again once it was freed, “we should put your doll here, too.”

“Good thinking!” The admiration and stomach-swooping sensation had multiplied tenfold as Ryuu patted down his pockets, taking a discrete moment to wipe his clammy palms on his pants before the realization sank in. He checked his pockets one more time. Stooped to check his shoes. Groped around the floor, even, bent at the waist with splayed fingertips. His doll. “I had it earlier - shit!”

With how much running they’d done, he could’ve dropped it anywhere. Neither of them had a flashlight, and to pacify the spirits of the house they needed to make it through and burn their dolls. Had he already let down girls everywhere?

Nishinoya snatched up his hand again, this time sandwiching it between both of his with the doll pressed to his palm. “Don’t mind! We’re partners. We share the burden and we’ll share this doll. We’ll definitely save these girls together.”

After a beat of stunned silence, Ryuu nodded and clapped his free hand up to hold Noya’s in turn. “Noya-san,” he said, firm, “you’re the coolest guy I’ve ever met.”

“I was about to say the same thing to you! So cool, Ryuu!” Noya stepped in so close that his breath tickled Ryuu’s chin, so close that the gleam in his eyes could be made out in the dark. Ryuu’s heart kept racing without help from any ghosts or jump scares; Noya hoarding his space and nodding with the gravity of an action hero kicked it along all on its own. “Let’s do this, Ryuu.”

* * *

A grazing, tickling touch skirted down Ryuu’s spine when he first saw the fire: confined to a cast iron bowl on a low table, its light sighing throughout the room and dancing across the cracked, red faces of wall-to-wall life-sized dolls - or girls that looked like dolls. His back stiffened and he swallowed down a yelp like it’d been coated with peanut butter. When Ryuu first toed over the threshold, their eyes all found him before Noya clenched his hand tight and bumped against his side.

“C’mon,” Noya whispered, his even tone clashing with the clammy squeeze of his fingers where they interlaced with Ryuu’s own. But Ryuu nodded in spite of the goosebumps crawling down his torso, raising his chin and trying not to look as cold and terrified as he felt. They stepped into the room together before the door slid shut behind them and each girl’s eyes opened wide, sclera black and cracked mouths matching as they began to scream. Any semblance of calm dissipated with it as Noya and Ryuu scrambled for the table, girls peeling away from the walls to charge and reach for them.

“Throw it in the fire! Throw it in the fire!”

“My hand’s stuck! Fucking hell!”

“Just let go!”

“I’m trying! You’re squeezing, Noya!”

“Sorry - now! Now!”

Ryuu slam-dunked the paper doll into the bowl of fire - or tried to. It stuck to his palm, so Ryuu flapped his hand and screamed before it finally peeled away and floated to its cindery death. The girls’ screaming stopped. They froze in place, hands still curled into rigid claws or reaching too close for comfort, and Noya clung to his side while they both watched the doll burn away. Ryuu wound his arms around Nishinoya after a shaking second, sighing like his body might deflate into empty skin, and once the doll ceased to be they picked their way through bodies to leave into the balmy nighttime air.

“Thank you for your courage!” A girl greeted them by the exit, all sunny smiles next to a table filled with charms and other merchandise. She tapped her cheek when her eyes landed on Ryuu, smile skewing awkward while he pulled her lips between her teeth like she wanted to hold back a laugh. “Would you...like to buy a commemorative t-shirt?”

Ryuu’s apparent fatigue burnt right out of him as he ran his hand back over his hair and puffed up, his free hand curled back into Nishinoya’s without a second thought. He almost lifted Noya when he threw his arms up, towing Noya’s hand along. “Ha! We showed those ghosts!”

“We saved the girls!” Noya crowed along, jumping with Ryuu’s momentum before aiming his enthusiastic stare Ryuu’s way. Ryuu flushed, grin falling into sheepishness before his shoulders jerked at the salesgirl’s giggle.

“Yes, I’ll buy a t-shirt!” He coughed out, stepping in closer to Noya to hide their joined hands behind his back. Nishinoya couldn’t stop grinning while he looked at Ryuu like he’d found something particularly amazing, but Ryuu knew better. Clearly he’d been the one to find something - someone cooler than cool, more dependable than dependable, and...other stuff that embarrassed him just thinking to himself. He stole a quick peek at Noya, who caught his eye and beamed while jostling Ryuu’s side.

“When we go again next time, let’s just ask for one doll right away.”

Ryuu propped his free hand on his hip, smile so wide his cheeks ached. “Hell yeah!”


End file.
